Distinguished hosts and guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be addressing such an eminent gathering of protected area professionals, conservation experts and decision makers. Thank you for... Show More + this opportunity to connect with old and new partners to strengthen and move forward the protected area agenda at a crucial juncture for parks, people and the planet.Some of you may remember me in previous incarnations, managing projects on biodiversity, land degradation and territorial approaches to climate change for UNDP, or pushing for the Sustainable Development Goals initiative from within the Colombian government. I moved to the World Bank in July with the same drive and passion because I now want to focus on implementation. As head of the new Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice at the World Bank, I see great opportunities to carry the conservation agenda forward by managing natural resources within the broader paradigm of poverty reduction and long-term sustainable, resilient development.Getting steps right to maximize present and future benefitsLet me start off with a story. A couple of months ago, on my first World Bank mission, I was in Tanzania. A country renowned for its national parks and protected areas. Indeed, national parks and the wildlife they host are the backbone of a tourism industry that accounts for a critical 13% of the country’s GDP and 400,000 jobs. Tourism spurs investment and business in other sectors. It’s also the largest export earner—which means it underpins the exchange rate, which makes much else in the economy possible.Nature-based tourism is thus a driver of growth in a country which still faces challenges in eliminating poverty. However, the natural assets that generate vital revenue face a range of threats.Some are more intractable such as the gruesome poaching crisis that has decimated elephant populations in the Selous Game Reserve, and demand concerted, collective international action. Other threats, however, could be readily addressed if the true worth of protected areas were understood. In the Ruaha national park, where 10% of the world’s remaining lions live, the Great Ruaha River is running dry and wildlife is in decline. Why? Irrigated rice fields have increased 10-fold in the upper watershed above the park in the last few years. Because so much water is being diverted upstream, for several months every year the Great Ruaha River simply does not run, with concomitant impacts on wildlife. Streams and watering holes are drying up. In addition to impacts on the Park, this limits livelihood options for downstream communities.This illustrates a story that is played out constantly all over the globe. The true worth of ecosystem services, now and for tomorrow, is often not taken into account. Decisions are made without fully understanding the trade-offs, without identifying win-win options that would so readily deliver co-benefits. Instead, poor management of resources limits development opportunities, generating cascades of social, environmental and economic externalities. Perversely, the very assets that would lead to long-term collective well-being are eroded as a result of investments that focus on narrow short-term gains and fail to appreciate that environment is actually a core part of the development equation.Tanzania’s government and business community are committed to ensuring that nature-based tourism remains a strategic driver of sustained growth. The Ruaha story is simply a reminder that resilient, sustainable development demands that we look at the big picture, one in which the health of both people and nature are deemed to be equally important as they are fundamentally interconnected. Ignoring nature inevitably erodes human wellbeing.When I started to position the SDGs I was told by many that they had to focus only on people. I always wondered exactly how that could serve humankind given that we happen to need the planet for life. Clearly we still need to make the case for the symbiotic relation between planet and people—and in this context then to make the case for protected areas. This is a vital task because unless we succeed, we will have a hard time steering decisions toward win-win solutions that help us simultaneously feed billions of people AND conserve habitats AND respond to climate change.Protected areas should be part of a broader poverty reduction strategyOur task, however, takes place against a sobering backdrop.It is what I call "receding reality"—the new normal. This is the slow onset degradation and depletion of our planet that lulls us into passivity. The fish are smaller, the forests emptier, the streams dry... Slow onset is not just sea level rise. Slow onset speaks to our progressive acceptance of a less rich and diverse world. This we must cognize and rebel against. Because a diminished planet also means that our collective global society will have failed to understand the inherent worth of protected areas.Current trends are encouraging—the global coverage of protected areas is increasing from around 9% at the first Rio meeting, to the current 15.4%. We’re on track to reach 17% coverage of terrestrial and inland water areas by 2020, one of the Aichi targets. However, much more effort is required if we are to reach the targets for oceans and marine areas. We also need to ensure that these areas are vibrant and real, not paper parks.The World Bank is proud to be working with governments to advance this can-do agenda. Our work supporting the Brazilian government through the Amazon Region Protected Areas program (or ARPA), for example, has largely contributed to global progress on protected areas, by establishing, expanding and strengthening the protection of 60 million hectares of rainforest.We’re also seeing more and more protected areas that are created with people and livelihoods in mind: ARPA’s success is largely founded on empowering Indigenous Peoples and building assets for the poor: the program has helped secure Indigenous Peoples’ rights over 45 million hectares of land, and enhanced their livelihoods by promoting the sustainable use and marketing of forest resources.My hope is that these best practices are carried forward into the new Parks of tomorrow. We know conservation must benefit nature-dependent people; we know how to do conservation without fencing out the people.But we can’t rely on protected areas alone. How will we feed 9 billion people in 2050? Where will land, fodder, fuel and jobs come from? Put simply, the forest will burn if people are hungry. Agriculture and fisheries drive the majority of biodiversity loss. We must look beyond the traditional boundaries of conservation, fisheries and agriculture, understand that there can be no divide, and address poverty and food security full-on. We need to promote the sustainable climate-smart intensification of agriculture, through landscape approaches, sustainable fisheries, agro-forestry, and the restoration of degraded lands. Protected areas should be positioned as core components of broader landscape and seascape development strategies. Our challenge is to ensure that Ministers of Finance and Planning and Agriculture understand protected areas are part of a functional and productive economy. By protecting and enhancing natural capital not only in parks but along watersheds, on farm land, in pastures, in freshwater and coastal waters, we can transform the economic prospects and food security of millions of people. We’ve seen it, for example, in Indonesia, where a project worked with 358 village communities to protect coral reefs, while improving fishing practices. Coral reef grew on average by 17% in 6 out of 7 districts, and communities’ income increased by 20% since 2008. Now in its third phase, the COREMAP project is working to mainstream an approach that makes coral reef protection planning an integral part of development planning and improves the welfare of coastal communities. Natural infrastructure delivers.Truly sustainable development requires policies and economic incentives, practical tools and safeguards to ensure that protected areas sustain critical ecosystem services and promote resilience and human well-being. In the coming year, we can set the pathway to that future if we can strengthen the role of protected areas in defining and delivering on the world’s Sustainable Development Goals, and by embedding protected areas in the procedures that define society’s development planning and underpin economic decision making. That's why I'm excited about the future despite the worrying trends: there are proven "win-win" solutions. We have the tools to ensure that both conservation and development are fully convergent.Steering development choices toward long-term gainsThis brings me to my second point: the rebellion against a receding reality only works if enough people in different walks of life join the good fight. And on this score there is also hope. Around the world we are witnessing a growing rejection of business as usual, with many taking risks and making hard choices to halt the planet’s decline, to slow down the destruction.Yesterday, China and the U.S. exemplified historic leadership in the run up to Lima, putting forth commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that should drive all Parties to greater ambition.Witness too the recent New York Declaration on Forests, with robust commitments to eliminating deforestation by national and sub-national governments, CSOs, Indigenous Peoples, companies. There is for example, a growing focus on the impact of commodities and consumer goods and the role that protected areas and natural ecosystems can play in sustaining commodity supply chains.The new Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture will be a decisive player in this effort.In addition to this, there is a growing chorus of governments and others seeking to look beyond GDP. More and more countries are asking for support from the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services Partnership—WAVES.Natural capital accounting has already helped Botswana factor water constraints in its policy choices. In the Philippines’ biodiversity-rich Southern Palawan, where there are numerous competing demands on resources, ecosystem accounts are expected to provide decision makers with the tools they need to make no-regrets decisions on ecotourism, agriculture and mining. This work is challenging from a methodological point of view but politically vital. It is helping governments go beyond annual growth statistics and understand the importance of natural assets over a longer time horizon.Programs helping countries plan for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) are also having an impact, by creating an incentive for decision makers from different land-use sectors to sit around a common table, take out maps and negotiate a shared vision for the future that leaves valuable forests intact. We are creating and applying solutions to address and correct market, institutional and policy failures, by transforming how we measure and account for development and by providing clear incentives across sectors for responsible private and public investment in natural capital. And let me share, as a final thought, why this concerted, collective action is so critical in a time of receding reality. There is no question that the moral imperative of our time is poverty eradication. While we know that extreme poverty has declined, the proportion of people at risk of falling back into extreme poverty remains stubbornly high. And everyone one of us in this room knows that gains on this front will be lost unless we change the current development paradigm.The World Bank Group adopted two goals last year: to help countries end extreme poverty by 2030 and boost shared prosperity for the bottom 40% of the population in a sustainable manner. The second goal speaks to the rising expectations of a global emerging middle-class. We must also be prepared to manage the changing consumption patterns of this growing global middle class as this will further exacerbate resource depletion and stretch the carrying capacity of many productive systems. This demands structural, systemic changes that go beyond minimalist, quick-fix approaches. It is our collective task to ensure that those changes have at their core an understanding of landscapes and seascapes as an integral, vibrant whole. That the true worth and value of protected areas is reflected.We have come a long way from the Stockholm Conference of 1972. We must seize the moment. Follow up on the NY Declaration on Forests. Support climate-smart agriculture and fisheries. Ensure that forests are meaningfully included in future climate change agreements. Support the active and integrated implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. We must live up to the Promise of Sydney and implement solutions that cross boundaries and deliver lasting results for parks, people and planet.At Sydney this year, this must be our pledge. There is no plan B for people and the planet. Thank you. Show Less -

Anita Marangoly George, Senior Director of the World Bank Group’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice, called for an end to routine gas flaring by 2030.“It is time to end this industry practice,” she... Show More + urged delegates, mostly from governments of oil producing countries, leading international and national oil companies, service companies, equipment manufacturers, and financial institutions.During oil production, the associated natural gas is flared when barriers to the development of gas markets and gas infrastructure prevent it from being utilized. About 140 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas is flared every year worldwide, resulting in about 350 million tons of carbon dioxide in annual emissions. Eliminating the flaring would, in terms of emissions, be the same as taking some 70 million cars off the road.The World Bank Group has a leadership role in gas flaring reduction through the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), a public-private initiative with governments and oil companies working together to increase utilization of natural gas associated with oil production. Satellite data on global gas flaring shows that overall efforts to reduce gas flaring are paying off. From 2005 to 2012, flaring dropped 20 percent worldwide.According to available satellite data, the Russian Federation is by far the world’s largest flarer. In 2012, it is estimated Russia flared nearly 35 bcm of gas. The choice of Moscow for this year’s World Petroleum Congress was thus an opportune moment to raise the issue.While flaring in Russia has significantly declined over the last several years and in 2012 over 76 percent of associated gas was utilized, much work remains. However, progress in one of Russia’s regions offers grounds for confidence that further reductions can be made. In the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra (KMAO), about 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow, the regional government has developed a focused effort to address gas flaring. Oil companies operating in this region spent $3.4 billion to build the infrastructure to utilize otherwise flared gas. The volume of flared gas being utilized is now well over 90 percent in KMAO.In her remarks to the World Petroleum Congress, Ms. George used the success story of KMAO as an example, and challenged all delegates to do more to pursue a world free from routine flaring of natural gas.“We simply cannot afford to waste it anymore,” she said. “Reducing gas flaring is one very tangible way the oil and gas industry can show leadership on mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring proper use of natural resources. But it is also about access to energy.”One example is Nigeria, the second largest flarer in the world. Nigeria flares approximately 13 bcm annually while millions of its own citizens lack electricity.Bjorn Hamso, manager of the GGFR program, visited Nigeria soon after his appointment to the post. He notes that the Nigerian government, a GGFR partner, is trying to tackle the issue but faces numerous challenges.“Nigeria has had a policy of no flaring since 1984, but its enforcement of this policy has been weak. In some ways it’s another case of the resource curse where countries rich in natural resources struggle with managing them efficiently,” he said. Show Less -

Who is most at risk?The new study, part of an ongoing OECD project, examined maps and databases of population and world assets, flood-prone regions, storm frequency data, and cost of damage models for... Show More + 136 large coastal cities. For the first time, it took into account existing coastal defenses and their level of protection.In terms of the overall cost of damage, the cities at the greatest risk are: 1) Guangzhou, 2) Miami, 3) New York, 4) New Orleans, 5) Mumbai, 6) Nagoya, 7) Tampa, 8) Boston, 9) Shenzen, and 10) Osaka. The top four cities alone account for 43% of the forecast total global losses.However, developing-country cities move up the list when flood costs are measured as a percentage of city gross domestic product (GDP). Many of them are growing rapidly, have large populations, are poor, and are exposed to tropical storms and sinking land. The study lists the 10 most vulnerable cities when measured as percentage of GDP as: 1) Guangzhou; 2) New Orleans; 3) Guayaquil, Ecuador; 4) Ho Chi Minh City; 5) Abidjan; 6) Zhanjing; 7) Mumbai; 8) Khulna, Bangladesh; 9) Palembang, Indonesia; and 10) Shenzen.In most of these cities, the poor are most at risk as rapid urbanization has pushed them into the most vulnerable neighborhoods, often in low-lying areas and along waterways prone to flooding. Taking action nowOne warning from the study's findings appearing in the journal Nature Climate Change is that the cities where flood risk will increase most are not the cities where the risk is particularly high today. Port cities that haven't been highly vulnerable in the past are among those facing the greatest increase in risk by 2050. Leading the cities with the greatest increase in risk are Alexandria, Egypt; Barranquilla, Colombia; Naples, Italy; Sapporo, Japan; and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. “Coastal defenses reduce the risk of floods today, but they also attract population and assets in protected areas and thus put them at risk in case of the defense fails, or if an event overwhelms it. If they are not upgraded regularly and proactively as risk increases with climate change and subsidence, defenses can magnify – not reduce – the vulnerability of some cities,” Hallegatte said. With better defenses, more people will be dependent on dikes and sea walls, and losses when those defenses fail to protect the city will get bigger. Along with better structural defenses, cities will need better crisis management and contingency planning, including early warning systems and evacuation plans, Hallegatte said. In cities where flood damage hasn't been common, spending money on flood defenses can be politically unpopular. The challenge facing government officials today is investing in protection before the damage occurs. For small countries, protection and preparation are especially important. A devastating flood in a key city can stall the entire economy of a small country, making recovery and reconstruction even more difficult. For all of the cities, the preparation will save lives and money in the future. Show Less -

LONDON, June 19, 2013—Regular food shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa….shifting rain patterns in South Asia leaving some parts under water and others without enough water for power generation, irrigation,... Show More + or drinking….degradation and loss of reefs in South East Asia resulting in reduced fish stocks and coastal communities and cities more vulnerable to increasingly violent storms….these are but a few of the likely impacts of a possible global temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius[1] in the next few decades that threatens to trap millions of people in poverty, according to a new scientific report released today by the World Bank Group.Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience builds on a World Bank report released late last year, which concluded the world would warm by 4 degrees Celsius[2] (4°C or 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century if we did not take concerted action now. This new report looks at the likely impacts of present day, 2°C and 4°C warming on agricultural production, water resources, coastal ecosystems and cities across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia.“This new report outlines an alarming scenario for the days and years ahead – what we could face in our lifetime,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “The scientists tell us that if the world warms by 2°C -- warming which may be reached in 20 to 30 years -- that will cause widespread food shortages, unprecedented heat-waves, and more intense cyclones. In the near-term, climate change, which is already unfolding, could batter the slums even more and greatly harm the lives and the hopes of individuals and families who have had little hand in raising the Earth's temperature.” “These changes forecast for the tropics illustrate the level of hardships that will be inflicted on all regions eventually, it we fail to keep warming under control,” Kim said. “Urgent action is needed to not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also to help countries prepare for a world of dramatic climate and weather extremes.” The report, prepared for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics, reveals how rising global temperatures are increasingly threatening the health and livelihoods of the most vulnerable populations, crucially magnifying problems each region is struggling with today. Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience is an analysis of the latest climate science, as a means to better understand the risks of climate change to development. Key findings include:In Sub-Saharan Africa, by the 2030s droughts and heat will leave 40 percent of the land now growing maize unable to support that crop, while rising temperatures could cause major loss of savanna grasslands threatening pastoral livelihoods. By the 2050s, depending on the sub-region, the proportion of the population undernourished is projected to increase by 25-90 percent compared to the present.In South Asia, the potential change in the regularity and impact of the all-important monsoon could precipitate a major crisis in the region. Events like the devastating Pakistan floods of 2010, which affected more than 20 million people, could become common place. More extreme droughts in large parts of India could lead to widespread food shortages and hardship.Across South East Asia, rural livelihoods are faced with mounting pressures as sea levels rise, tropical cyclones increase in intensity, and important marine ecosystem services are lost as warming approaches 4°C. And across all the regions, the likely movement of impacted communities into urban areas could lead to ever higher numbers of people in informal settlements being exposed to heat waves, flooding, and diseases.The report says impacts across its study regions are potentially devastating. And, if warming goes from 2ºC to 4°C, multiple threats of increasing extreme heat waves, sea–level rise, more severe storms, droughts and floods would have severe negative implications for the poorest and most vulnerable. It notes, however, that many of the worst consequences could still be avoided by holding warming below 2ºC.“I do not believe the poor are condemned to the future scientists envision in this report. In fact, I am convinced we can reduce poverty even in a world severely challenged by climate change,” President Kim continued. “We can help cities grow clean and climate resilient, develop climate smart agriculture practices, and find innovative ways to improve both energy efficiency and the performance of renewable energies. We can work with countries to roll back harmful fossil fuel subsidies and help put the policies in place that will eventually lead to a stable price on carbon.”“We are determined to work with countries to find solutions,” Kim said. “But, the science is clear. There can be no substitute for aggressive national mitigation targets, and the burden of emissions reductions lies with a few large economies.” The report says sea level rise has been occurring more rapidly than previously projected and a rise of as much as 50 cm by the 2050s may already be unavoidable as a result of past emissions. In some cases, impacts could be felt much earlier. For example, without adaptation measures, sea level rise of 15 cm, coupled with more intense cyclones, threatens to inundate much of Bangkok by the 2030s.The burgeoning cities of the developing world are identified as some of the places on the planet most at risk from climate change. Describing urban areas as “new clusters of vulnerability,” the report says urban dwellers, particularly the urban poor, face significant vulnerability to climate change. Informal settlements in places like Metro Manila in the Philippines and Kolkata in India concentrate large populations and often lack basic services, such as electricity, sanitation, health, infastructure, and durable housing. In such areas, people are highly exposed to extremen weather events, such as storms and flooding. Extreme heat is also felt more acutely in cities.Partly in response to the findings of the two Turn Down the Heat reports, the World Bank Group is stepping up its mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk management work, and will increasingly look at all its business through a “climate lens.” Today, the Bank is helping 130 countries take action on climate change. Last year, it doubled its financial lending that contributes to adaptation. Increasingly, the Bank is supporting action on the ground to finance the kind of projects that help the poor grow their way out of poverty, increase their resilience to climate change, and achieve emission reductions.[1] 2 degrees Celsius = 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit[2] 4 degrees Celsius = 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit More videos:VIDEO: World Bank President: Rising Temperatures Could Slow Poverty Reduction in Africa VIDEO: World Bank President: Climate Change Will Impact South Asia VIDEO: World Bank President: Southeast Asian Economy Vulnerable to Changing ClimateVIDEO: Climate Change in Africa Will Hit the Poor the HardestFor broadcast quality, please contact: Mehreen Sheikh Show Less -

What will it take to meet the Sustainable Energy for All goals for energy access, renewable energy, and energy efficiency by 2030? The Global Tracking Initiative combines the work of 15 international organizations... Show More + to show where the world is today in energy access, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, and how far it needs to go to meet the 2030 goals.Click for HIGHER RESOLUTION Show Less -

Working towards global carbon tradingThe good news is that an increasing number of countries, provinces and cities around the globe are developing and building schemes to reduce emissions and trade the... Show More + resulting carbon reductions. Supporting national or subnational governments to put in place these mechanisms must be a priority. Many will want to participate in some level of trading across markets and some are already entering into formal bilateral negotiations to that effect. Adoption of common approaches and frameworks will facilitate linking and significant efforts to share experience and ideas are ongoing. However, recognising that countries will choose the most appropriate approach for their national circumstances and that the result is likely to be some level of heterogeneity across markets, a flexible approach is needed. We need an approach that recognises and accommodates differences across counties and that will support efficient trading across current and yet-to-emerge heterogeneous domestic and regional carbon markets and a range of asset types. As these developments unfold, we believe it is worth exploring the idea of a globally-networked carbon market with: pricing and exchange rates to support fungibility across asset classes; a reserve carbon “currency” for conversion and trading of emission reduction assets; and services and institutions to support a market of global scale. Of course, the principle of environmental integrity would need to underpin any effort of this sort.Possible elements could include independent carbon asset rating systems to provide information to the market and domestic regulators on relative risk and environmental integrity or an International Carbon Reserve supporting, as needed, domestic and regional reserves to help avoid extreme price swings. It could have a clearing-house function to establish exchange rates and possibly act as market-maker for new assets. It could also oversee a cross-border settlement platform to track cross-border trades and holdings of various carbon asset classes.But there are those who doubt that any form of carbon market could still work. What gives us confidence is the level of innovation in countries exploring domestic market mechanisms. There is evidence that carbon pricing can work if it is flexible and aligned with national policy initiatives, in particular economic priorities.While prices in major existing carbon markets like the EU Emissions Trading System flounder, many new national carbon pricing initiatives are emerging. And, not surprisingly, among the new carbon pricing initiatives, many include design features to manage extreme price volatility. The Partnership for Market Readiness In March, the Bank hosted a meeting of the Partnership for Market Readiness (PMR) – a growing coalition of over 30 developed and developing countries working on various solutions to carbon pricing. The World Bank acts as secretariat, trustee and principle delivery partner for the initiative. We are seeing more and more countries taking innovative domestic action.China is showing extraordinary leadership in this field. China’s seven pilot programmes – capturing between them five cities and two provinces with a total population of 246 million and accounting for a cumulative GDP of $1.6 trillion – are planned to launch this year. Shenzhen will launch its pilot in June 2013; Beijing and Shanghai will follow shortly thereafter. These pilots will pave the way for establishing a national carbon market, and China is already looking ahead to how it might link its ETS with others.The PMR is also supporting Chile, which is putting in place the necessary building blocks for an emissions trading system in its energy sector, including building a greenhouse gas registry system to track emission permits.South Africa is spearheading a carbon tax, which will be implemented in 2015. The design of the system includes a carbon offset scheme that helps companies meet their liabilities.Outside of the PMR, South Korea is preparing the first phase of its ETS, to start in 2015. And in California, compliance obligations came into force at the start of this year for its cap-and-trade programme which, when it expands in 2015 to fuel providers, will cover 85% of the state’s emissions.Innovation generating actionIt is progress at the country level that gives hope – the innovation, energy and farsightedness among the people developing these national and sub-national systems that convinces us at the World Bank that carbon pricing is emerging and carbon markets have a future.We hope to jumpstart a fresh debate. We don’t know if these are the right answers, and they are certainly not the only answers, but we do know that we need to work with everyone – policy-makers, the private sector and civil society – to develop our ideas, learn from others, and together decide how best we can move ahead on catalysing stronger political ambition and translating ambition into robust, predictable carbon prices.At the World Bank Group, we will continue to support innovation and offer technical analysis to countries as they explore their carbon options, and investigate mechanisms that can bring markets to a scale commensurate with the challenges we face.We cannot afford to fail in our efforts to limit climate change. Show Less -

Four leading international organizations unveiled a conceptual framework for green growth indicators on April 4 that marks the first step toward developing a global approach to monitoring green growth... Show More + progress.The joint report, Moving toward a Common Approach on Green Growth Indicators, is the result of coordinated efforts by the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations Environment Program, and Global Green Growth Institute, under the banner of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) and its program on green growth measurement and indicators. International cooperation on testing, exploring, and refining measurement tools on green growth is essential for supporting the practical implementation of policies in both developed and developing countries in their transition to green economies and assessing their progress.In offering a conceptual framework for green growth indicators, the preliminary report marks the first time that the participating international organizations have shared a joint vision for a set of indicators that can help communicate the central elements of green growth and green economy. The indicators can alert governments and citizens to pressing issues where policy action and societal responses are needed to address the environmental challenges.Supporting decisions with dataIndicators on green growth and green economy provide information on and communicate the need for policy action and national plans for green growth. They also help the public to better understand how they can contribute to green growth and support the transition to a green economy.The framework – the first step toward an internationally agreed upon approach to monitor progress toward green growth – is part of the GGKP's mission to help address knowledge gaps in green growth theory and practice and to support design and implementation of policies to move towards a green economy. It sets a new threshold for global cooperation aimed at accelerating and scaling up the use of measurement tools on green growth. It also sets out an agenda for further progress, highlighting outstanding challenges for the measurement, interpretation and implementation of green growth indicators in practice.What to measureWhile there is no single green growth model, and green growth strategies need to be tailored to country conditions, the following areas are identified as central to monitoring progress toward green growth:environmental and resource productivity and innovation;natural assets (including biodiversity) and their cost-effective management;the environmental quality of life (including access to basic services such as clean water);related green growth policies, economic opportunities and social context of green growth; andmonitoring sustainability of overall economic developments, for example through comprehensive wealth accounting.The green growth measurement framework gives countries flexibility to incorporate green growth into their national development plans and to monitor progress on tackling their main environmental, economic and social concerns.A common framework will help to bridge the experience of governments, the private sector, and civil society on reporting and measurement tools for green growth. It can contribute to aligning government and corporate information on environmental impacts and to identify obstacles to economic opportunities and growth. Show Less -

The report, reviewed by some of the world’s top scientists, is being released ahead of the next comprehensive studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2013/14, and follows the... Show More + Bank’s own Strategic Framework for Development and Climate Change in 2008 (Check out: Development and Climate Change - A Strategic Framework for the World Bank Group for FY09-11) and the World Development Report on climate change in 2010. "Turn Down the Heat" combines a synthesis of recent scientific literature with new analysis of likely impacts and risks, focusing on developing countries. It chronicles already observed climate change and impacts, such as heat waves and other extreme events, and offers projections for the 21st century for droughts, heat waves, sea level rise, food, water, ecosystems and human health.The report says today’s climate could warm from the current global mean temperature of 0.8°C above pre-industrial levels, to as high as 4°C by 2100, even if countries fulfill current emissions-reduction pledges."This report reinforces the reality that today’s climate volatility affects everything we do," said Rachel Kyte, the Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development. "We will redouble our efforts to build adaptive capacity and resilience, as well as find solutions to the climate challenge."The World Bank doubled lending for climate change adaptation last year and plans to step up efforts to support countries’ initiatives to mitigate carbon emissions and promote inclusive green growth and climate-smart development. Among other measures, the Bank administers the $7.2 billion Climate Investment Funds now operating in 48 countries and leveraging an additional $43 billion in clean investment and climate resilience.Rising Sea LevelsThe report says sea levels have been rising faster in the last two decades than previously, and this rise is being seen in many tropical regions of the world. This phenomenon is partly due to melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets; the rapid growth in melt area observed since the 1970s in Greenland’s ice sheet is a clear illustration of its increasing vulnerability. Arctic sea ice also reached a record minimum in September 2012. "There are indications that the greatest melt extent in the past 225 years has occurred in the last decade," says the report."It’s early yet but clearly some of the small island states and coastal communities are beginning to take a hard look at their options," said Erick Fernandes, co-lead of the Bank’s Global Expert Team on Climate Change Adaptation. "The need to adapt to climate change will increase as global population reaches 9 billion in 2050," he added.Ocean AcidificationCoral reefs are acutely sensitive to changes in water temperature and acidity levels. The report warns that by the time the warming levels reach 1.4° C in 2030s, coral reefs may stop growing. This would be a result of oceans becoming more acidic as a result of higher CO2 concentrations. And with 2.4° C, coral reefs in several areas may actually start to dissolve. This is likely to have profound consequences for people who depend on them for food, income, tourism and shoreline protection.Heat ExtremesA 4°C warmer world would also suffer more extreme heat waves, and these events will not be evenly distributed across the world, according to the report.Sub-tropical Mediterranean, northern Africa, the Middle East, and the contiguous United States are likely to see monthly summer temperatures rise by more than 6°C. Temperatures of the warmest July between 2080-2100 in the Mediterranean are expected to approach 35°C – about 9°C warmer than the warmest July estimated for the present day. The warmest July month in the Sahara and the Middle East will see temperatures as high as 45°C, or 6-7°C above the warmest July simulated for the present day.Lower agricultural yieldsHotter weather could in turn lower crop yields in a 4°C world—raising concerns about future food security. Field experiments have shown that crops are highly sensitive to temperatures above certain thresholds. One study cited in the report found that each “growing degree day” spent at a temperature of 30 degrees decreases yields by 1% under drought-free rain-fed conditions.The report also says drought-affected areas would increase from 15.4% of global cropland today, to around 44% by 2100. The most severely affected regions in the next 30 to 90 years will likely be in southern Africa, the United States, southern Europe and Southeast Asia, says the report. In Africa, the report predicts 35% of cropland will become unsuitable for cultivation in a 5°C world.Risks to Human Support SystemsThe report identifies severe risks related to adverse impacts on water availability, particularly in northern and eastern Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. River basins like the Ganges and the Nile are particularly vulnerable. In Amazonia, forest fires could as much double by 2050. The world could lose several habitats and species with a 4°C warming.Non-linear impactsAs global warming approaches and exceeds 2°C, there is a risk of triggering nonlinear tipping elements. Examples include the disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet leading to more rapid sea-level rise, or large-scale Amazon dieback drastically affecting ecosystems, rivers, agriculture, energy production, and livelihoods. This would further add to 21st-century global warming and impact entire continents.The projected 4°C warming simply must not be allowed to occur—the heat must be turned down. Only early, cooperative, international actions can make that happen. Show Less -

Working with others we've launched an Open Data for Resilience Initiative, a global effort working in 25 countries. An example is haitidata.org, which makes risk assessment data produced following... Show More + the 2010 Haiti earthquake available for anyone to download and use.Similarly, Open Data for the Horn of Africa now facilitates open access to geospatial information, data and knowledge sources about the ongoing response to the drought in the Horn of Africa.My point is simple: Farmers, fisher folk, and others around the world are using data and technology everyday to deal with increasing uncertainty brought on by climate change. In Nepal they are using PDAs – computers that fit into the palm of your hand - to collect data regarding changes in food security situations. In Chile, farmers can use low-cost mobiles to receive SMS messages about weather forecasts, market prices and even the latest cultivation practices.In India, fisher folk can use mobile phones to receive messages about weather forecasts, optimal fishing zones, and market prices. And in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, mobile phones are used to collect data for flood forecasting and forwarded to a central early warning system, with the information then sent out via traditional media.The Search for Solutions – Engaging and Empowering YouthSo that's the technology part of the transformational combo. Where do youth come in?You are the ones who can think out of the box. You are the ones who can take convoluted conference communiques and begin to make them real, not in conference rooms where agreements stumble or disappoint, but on the ground, and in local and virtual communities around the world.And your numbers are growing. In Africa alone, 70 percent of the population is under 30. And there are already more than 400 million cell phone users. That transformative combo of technology and youth is not tomorrow's world. It’s today.Connect4Climate initiativeThe Connect4Climate initiative – also one of the sponsors of tonight’s event – is using the power of partnerships, participation and social media to include the voices of local youth in the global climate change conversation.With a coalition of more than 140 partners and a Facebook community of over a quarter million, Connect4Climate is reaching out to young people – to listen, acknowledge, and respond to their ideas, to help amplify their voice. Across multiple social media channels, Connect4Climate reaches up to 6 million users each week.In the run-up to the UN Conference on Climate Change in Durban last December, Connect4Climate used a combination of social media and a photo and video competition to getAfrican youth aged 13 to 35 to tell their personal climate change stories through photos and videos.340 rural young people in Somalia were trained on climate change and its effects on agriculture, energy, forests, gender, health and water. They were given cameras to document how climate change has affected their lives and these photo stories depicting deforestation, drought, and health issues were entered in the C4C Photo/Video Competition.Youth from all 54 countries on the African continent participated – they want their voices – and their stories – heard. And we need to listen.ConclusionLadies and gentlemen, As the global population heads toward 9 billion by 2050, decisions made today will lock countries into growth patterns that can sustain or destroy our future.We know that economic development during the next two decades cannot mirror the past two: poverty reduction remains urgent, but growth and equity can be pursued without relying on policies and practices that foul the air, the water, and the land. The powerful combination of technology and people power can help us avoid the pitfalls of the past.Over the course of this evening you will hear from others on what they are doing to “swing into action”! It’s an impressive catalogue. Enjoy! Show Less -

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2012 – A software application developed in Argentina that teaches about energy consumption, climate change and the actions needed to reduce carbon emissions took first place in the... Show More + World Bank “Apps for Climate” competition today. “Ecofacts” was one of 14 finalists from around the world that were celebrated tonight at the Connecting for Climate event at the Newseum in Washington, DC.“From carbon calculators and classroom tools to new ways of visualizing climate data and planning policy responses, the “Apps for Climate” submissions are impressive. These developers rose to the challenge posed by the WB’s Open Climate Data Initiative and have produced some outstanding products,” said World Bank Managing Director Caroline Anstey, who gave the keynote speech at the event.“Apps for Climate” was announced in December 2011 during the United Nations COP-17 climate conference in Durban, South Africa. Developers had until March 16, 2012 to develop and submit their applications, which are now publicly available. A total prize purse of $55,000 was awarded to the finalists.Entries were reviewed by a panel of expert judges, including Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President of Sustainable Development; Juliana Rotich, Executive Director of Ushahidi; Andrew Steer, World Bank Special Envoy for Climate Change; and Patrick Svenburg, Director, Developer & Platform Evangelist in Microsoft’s Public Sector division.The top three winning apps in the “Apps for Climate” competition are:1st Place: Ecofacts, (Argentina, $15,000). Ecofacts teaches users about energy consumption and climate change, by showing how individual actions can translate into large-scale changes at the national level.2nd Place: My Climate Plan (Norway, $10,000). My Climate Plan allows users to create their own hypothetical national plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The program currently focuses on Norway, but could be adapted for other countries.3rd Place: Globe Town (United Kingdom, $5,000). Globe Town shows how countries are connected globally through trade, immigration, or international assistance, along with country profiles of issues such as energy use and climate adaptation.“Winning the Apps for Climate competition is a great honor,” said Andres Martinez, who took first place in the competition. “Ecofacts is an “open source” project, so anyone can access the source code for use in their own tools, or create improvements. In the future, I hope that Ecofacts will be useful to other developers and users alike.”In addition “CC Climate for Children” from Macedonia won in the “Popular Choice” category, and was awarded $5,000. “Climate for Children” is a collection of interactive classroom presentations and games for teaching climate change issues to students. “ClimaScope,” an app from the United Kingdom that visualizes future climate scenarios for planners and policymakers, received the Large Organization Award.“Solving the problem of climate change requires behavior change. People in all walks of life will need to make decisions based on the best available data,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President of Sustainable Development, speaking at the ceremony. “Data collected is just data. But data interpreted and visualized becomes something fundamentally more empowering. These apps have the potential to provide knowledge to those who need it to understand how a changing climate will affect their lives.”“These apps demonstrate the potential of how open data can improve understanding and lead to new insights,” observed Shaida Badiee, Director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group. “For example, one app integrates climate models with open data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to show how future forecasts could impact planting and irrigation of major crops around the world.” Show Less -

Kenyan hip hop artist/environmentalist Juliani to kick-off projectWashington, June 28, 2012 – So, what does climate change mean to you? This is the question Connect4Climate (C4C) and MTV will be asking... Show More + young people from around the world at the launch of "Voices4Climate", a new global photo, video, and music video competition focused on amplifying the voices of youth on the issue of climate change. The launch for the competition will be held tonight, June 28, at an event titled “Connecting for Climate: Technology, Creativity, and Action” at the Newseum in Washington, DC.Creative young people from around the world will be invited to share or sing their personal stories about climate change for the chance to win prizes and receive international recognition at the December 2012 UN Conference on Climate Change in Doha. Music video winners will spend a day with MTV editors in New York or London and have their music videos featured on MTV’s ‘Voices’ platform.“We all have within ourselves the power to be catalysts for change,” said World Bank Managing Director and Keynote Speaker, Caroline Anstey. “This is precisely the idea this competition is getting at. We don’t need - and can’t afford - to wait for others to get things done. Change can begin with just one person – all it takes is you.”"This competition is a great way to use the artistic talents of young people around the world to communicate on such an important issue,” said John Jackson, Vice President of Social Responsibility at MTV Networks International, who will be on hand to kick-off the competition. “MTV is very pleased to be able to encourage entries and to provide creative assistance to the winners."Juliani, Kenya’s tree-planting hip-hop star, who will perform at the event, characterizes his passion for climate change in this way, "When it comes to sustainable development, green economy, those are big words... you have to break them down into something people understand... I do this through my music.” The new competition builds on the success of C4C’s 2011 Africa regional competition. That competition drew over 700 photo and video submissions from every country on the African continent and awarded prizes to 54 winners from 20 African countries. Launched by the World Bank, the Italian Ministry of Environment, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with more than 140 global partners in September 2011, C4C is a global partnership program dedicated to climate change communications. Through social media and the web, C4C helps to give voice to local stakeholders that have stories to tell about climate change. In just several months, C4C has created a Facebook community of over 286,000 followers that engage in thousands of interactions per day. Across multiple social media platforms, C4C’s weekly online reach is, on average, between 5 and 6 million. Show Less -

Among the priorities emerging from the strategy is broadening the uptake of natural capital accounting around the world. This requires changing the thinking about what makes up a nation’s wealth so that... Show More + natural capital is accounted for and protected.Another emerging agenda is around oceans through a new global partnership. Other areas include low-emissions development strategies, climate adaptation, disaster risk management, and resilience of small island developing states.The strategy includes action plans for the specific environmental challenges in each developing region of the world. For example:In Africa, work will focus on strengthening governance for natural resource management given growing pressure on the region’s agriculture, mining, forests, and water basins. In partnership with other agencies, the private sector, and civil society, the Bank Group is seeking to expand access to clean energy across the region.In East Asia and the Pacific, the Bank Group is supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency, sustainable urban development and transport, as well as prioritizing the phase-out of numerous industrial pollutants; advising on carbon markets and adaptation in agriculture and coastal infrastructure; scaling up forest management; and strengthening regional partnerships to preserve biodiversity.In Europe and Central Asia, where many countries are faced with energy shortages and a legacy of industrial pollution, the Bank Group is promoting clean energy and production while supporting programs to dispose of pollutant stockpiles, rehabilitate watersheds and improve disaster preparedness.In Latin America and the Caribbean, where pressure continues on coastlines, wetlands, and the world’s largest forest cover, the Bank Group is supporting the management of protected areas, the integration of biodiversity conservation into productive landscapes and in some countries, the use of payments for environmental services. It is also providing the world’s most urbanized region with policy advice on cleaner development paths, supporting industrial pollution abatement, and promoting “green cities”.In Middle East and North Africa, where high population density, water scarcity, and overfishing tend primarily to affect the poor, the Bank Group is supporting programs to strengthen the capacity of countries with shared seas—the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Gulf—to reduce marine pollution and manage fisheries. Other focus areas include desert ecosystems and livelihoods; improved urban and industrial planning; scaled-up solar power generation; and efforts to reduce vulnerability to drought.In South Asia, where the poorest live in areas of high soil erosion, variable rainfall, and degraded forests, the Bank Group is helping to strengthen the role of natural resource management in the development agenda, strengthen environmental management in industry and reduce the costs to countries of environmental degradation.The strategy comes out just ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio +20, where world leaders will seek to secure renewed political commitment for sustainable development. The conference will assess progress made over the last 20 years and seek agreement on ways to address emerging challenges.The new environment strategy provides a platform for the World Bank Group's support to countries to achieve inclusive green growth—one of the key focus areas of the Rio+20 conference. Show Less -

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2012 -- The World Bank Group today released its ambitious, new Environment Strategy for 2012-2022 aimed at supporting countries to pursue sustainable development pathways that are green,... Show More + inclusive, efficient, and affordable. The new Strategy responds to calls from governments and the private sector for new approaches to development in light of unprecedented environmental challenges and lays out a vision for “a green, clean and resilient world for all”. “We’re seeing that working through the nexus of food crises, water insecurity, and energy needs is being made all the more complicated by environmental degradation and climate change,” said World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte. “Countries and communities and the ecosystems they depend on need to build resilience while moving to more efficient growth paths. This Strategy lays out the areas where we will put emphasis as we work to respond to countries’ needs.”As countries seek to reduce poverty in the face of climate change and other major environmental challenges, the Bank Group is providing knowledge, solutions and financing to foster an environment that is:Green where natural resources are sustainably managed and conserved to improve livelihoods and ensure food security;Clean in which cleaner air, water and oceans enable people to lead healthy, productive lives and where development strategies emphasize low-emission, climate-smart transport, energy, agriculture and urban development;Resilient in which countries are better prepared for shocks and less vulnerable to natural disasters, volatile weather patterns and other impacts of climate change.World Bank commitments addressing environment and natural resource management have grown from $1.5 billion or 8.4 percent of World Bank lending in FY01 to $6.3 billion or 14.3 percent in FY11. “The Strategy acknowledges the vital role of the private sector in achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth and development,” said International Finance Corporation (IFC) Vice President for Business Advisory Services Nena Stoiljkovic. “IFC works with the private sector as an advisor, financier, and standard setter to help unlock this potential.” The IFC invested $1.7 billion in climate-friendly projects in FY11, up 6 percent from $1.6 billion in FY10. Under the “green” agenda, a key priority is the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) global partnership which supports countries’ efforts to factor natural capital into national accounting systems and through the Global Partnership for Oceans, the focus is on restoring the world’s oceans to health and optimizing their contribution to economic growth and food security. The “clean” agenda prioritizes pollution management through river clean-up and legacy pollution projects while also encouraging low-emission development strategies and financing for renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, and lower-carbon cities. The “resilience” agenda, targets support to countries to adapt to climate change, improve disaster risk management, with a focus on vulnerable Small Island Developing States to reduce dependence on oil imports, build sound infrastructure, and restore protective coastal ecosystems such as mangroves. The Strategy includes action plans for the specific environmental challenges in each developing region of the world.In Africa, work will focus on strengthening governance for natural resource management given growing pressure on the region’s agriculture, mining, forests, and water basins. In partnership with other agencies, the private sector, and civil society, the Bank Group is seeking to expand access to clean energy across the region.In East Asia and the Pacific the Bank Group is supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency, sustainable urban development and transport, as well as prioritizing the phase-out of numerous industrial pollutants; advising on carbon markets and adaptation in agriculture and coastal infrastructure; scaling up forest management; and strengthening regional partnerships to preserve biodiversity.In Europe and Central Asia where many countries are faced with energy shortages and a legacy of industrial pollution, the Bank Group is promoting clean energy and production while supporting programs to dispose of pollutant stockpiles, rehabilitate watersheds and improve disaster preparedness.In Latin America and the Caribbean where pressure continues on coastlines, wetlands, and the world’s largest forest cover, the Bank Group is supporting the management of protected areas, the integration of biodiversity conservation into productive landscapes and in some countries, the use of payments for environmental services. It is also providing the world’s most urbanized region with policy advice on cleaner development paths, supporting industrial pollution abatement, and promoting “green cities”.In Middle East and North Africa where high population density, water scarcity, and overfishing tend primarily to affect the poor, the Bank Group is supporting programs to strengthen the capacity of countries with shared seas—the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Gulf—to reduce marine pollution and manage fisheries. Other focus areas include desert ecosystems and livelihoods; improved urban and industrial planning; scaled-up solar power generation; and efforts to reduce vulnerability to drought.In South Asia where the poorest live in areas of high soil erosion, variable rainfall, and degraded forests, the Bank Group is helping to strengthen the role of natural resource management in the development agenda, strengthen environmental management in industry and reduce the costs to countries of environmental degradation.Meeting the challenges of a green, clean, and resilient world requires leveraging the comparative advantage of all development partners. The new Strategy recognizes the growing role of the private sector in addressing sustainability concerns, developing sustainability standards, and ensuring that global markets can and do promote sustainable development.The Strategy also encompasses the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) - the arm of the World Bank Group that promotes responsible foreign direct investment into developing countries by offering political risk insurance to the private sector. “MIGA is pleased to have contributed to this strategy and to advance the notion that the private sector is absolutely crucial to affect change with respect to environmental issues," said Michel Wormser, MIGA's Vice President and COO. To measure and monitor progress the Environment Strategy includes a results framework to track progress over time. The new Strategy also advances work to assess greenhouse gas emissions from the Bank Group’s portfolio of development projects with pilots being undertaken in a number of World Bank energy, transport and forestry sector projects. Show Less -

World Bank releases State and Trends of the Carbon Market report 2012COLOGNE, GERMANY, May 30, 2012 – The total value of the carbon market grew by 11 percent in 2011, to $176 billion, and transaction volumes... Show More + reached a new high of 10.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) according to a new report from the World Bank. According to State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2012 this growth took place in the face of economic turbulence, growing long-term oversupply in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and plummeting carbon prices. The report, released here at the Carbon Expo in Cologne, describes how even as prices declined, the value of the global carbon market increased in 2011, driven predominantly by a robust growth in financially motivated transactions. By far, the largest segment of the carbon market was that of EU Allowances (EUAs), valued at $148 billion. There was also a substantial increase in the volume of secondary Kyoto offsets (which grew by 43 percent, to 1.8 billion tons of CO2e, valued at US$23 billion) fueled by increased liquidity in the Certified Emission Reduction (CER) market and in the nascent secondary Emission Reduction Unit (ERU) market. Following the same pattern observed in previous years, the global carbon market in 2011 was primarily driven by the EU ETS. With the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, the value of the pre-2013 primary CER, ERU and AAU markets declined once again in 2011. Not surprisingly, however, the market is starting to look beyond 2012 and consequently the post-2012 primary CDM market increased by a robust 63 percent, to US$2 billion, despite depressed prices and limited long-term-visibility. Although China remained the largest source of contracted CERs, African countries – largely bypassed in the pre-2013 market – emerged stronger in 2011 and accounted for 21 percent of post-2012 CERs contracted during the year. Against this backdrop, several new domestic and regional carbon market initiatives gained traction in both developed and developing economies in 2011. Five new jurisdictions passed legislation adopting cap-and-trade schemes. “It is heartening to see that, while leading economies continue to experience difficulties and the carbon market faces major challenges, we see increasing interest in, and support for, new market-based mechanisms to mitigate climate change in the long term,” said Joëlle Chassard, Manager of the Carbon Finance Unit of the World Bank. The Australian Parliament passed the Clean Energy Act, the California Air Resources Board adopted a cap-and-trade regulation, and Québec adopted its own cap-and-trade program. The province is now working toward linking it with California’s starting in 2013. Last month, both Mexico and the Republic of Korea passed comprehensive climate bills, laying the foundation for future market-based mechanisms. “Together, these initiatives will drive substantial resources towards low-carbon investments and they have the potential to unleash a truly transformational carbon market, in support of a global solution to the climate challenge,” said Alexandre Kossoy, Senior Financial Specialist, World Bank Carbon Finance Unit. Show Less -

Over the last 20 years economic growth has lifted more than 660 million people out of poverty and raised the income levels of millions more, but growth has often come at the expense of the environment.A... Show More + variety of market, policy and institutional failures mean that the Earth’s natural capital tends to be used in ways that are economically inefficient and wasteful, without sufficient reckoning of the true social costs of resource depletion, and without adequate reinvestment in other forms of wealth. These failures threaten the long-run sustainability of growth and progress made on social welfare. Moreover, despite the gains from growth, 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity, 2.6 billion have no access to sanitation, and 900 million lack safe, clean drinking water. In other words, growth has not been inclusive enough.Economic and social sustainability, on the one hand, and social and environmental sustainability, on the other, have been found to be not only compatible, but also largely complementary. Not so with economic and environmental sustainability, as growth has come largely at the expense of the environment—hence the dotted line on this figure—which is why green growth aims to ensure that economic and environmental sustainability are compatible.Developing countries have options other than to “grow dirty and clean up later.” Much that is useful can be done now: clean air and water and solid waste management are basic needs, and many environmental policies enhance productivity and poverty alleviation. So while poor countries should focus on meeting basic needs and expanding opportunities for growth, they need not do so at the expense of unsustainable environmental degradation. Further, environmental performance does not automatically improve with income, so policy action is needed anyway. Finally, it may be impossible or prohibitively expensive to “clean up later,” either because of the irreversibility of environmental damages like the loss of biodiversity, or because “lock-in” will make subsequent shifts to more environmentally benign structures and processes extremely costly.The future we wantWell-designed inclusive green policies improve social welfare, taking into account not only present but also future generations. Yet policy makers are also naturally concerned with the potential trade-offs and costs, as well as the potential co-benefits, of green policies for near-term growth and employment. Careful case-by-case analysis will be needed to find optimal strategies, but there is considerable evidence that near-term costs can be minimized through the use of well-designed regulations and market-based policy instruments that promote least-cost ways of protecting the environment. Green growth can then provide a pathway to more sustainable development that reconciles the urgent need for sustained growth with the imperative of avoiding lock-in to unsustainable growth patterns and irreversible environmental damages. Green growth is not anti-growth; rather, it represents a change in how we manage economies to reflect a broader conception of what constitutes effective and sustainable growth.The ability and will to value natural capital underpins the transition to greener growth. Environmental assets – water, land, air, ecosystems and the services they provide – represent a significant share of a country’s wealth. Just like physical and human capital, natural capital requires investment, maintenance, and good management if it is to be productive and fully contribute to prosperity. To accurately measure progress toward greener growth, countries will find it useful to implement comprehensive wealth accounting and valuation of ecosystems alongside their more conventional measures like GDP.Critically, there is no single green growth model. Green growth strategies will vary across countries, reflecting local preferences and contexts. Any single set of “best practices” should be imported with care. Nonetheless, all countries, rich and poor, have opportunities to make their growth greener and more inclusive without slowing it.How to get thereGreening growth requires policies that are on their own terms good for growth, as well as for the environment, such as reforming energy subsidies or trade barriers that protect pollution-intensive sectors. It entails politically difficult reforms in the patterns of pricing, regulation, and public investment, and it calls for complex changes in behaviors and social norms. Importantly, green growth requires knowing when to go for the politically expedient rather than the economically optimal.The World Bank’s new report, Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development, outlines a three-pronged strategy for pursuing greener growth:Prong 1 – Tailor national inclusive green growth strategies to a country’s circumstances, with an emphasis on maximizing local and immediate benefits and avoiding lock-in. Optimal solutions will differ across countries with varying degrees of institutional capacity, transparency, accountability, and civil society capacity.Prong 2 – Promote efficient and sustainable decision-making by policymakers, consumers, and the private sector. The use of pollution charges and other market-based instruments are important because they help incentivize efficiency and spur innovation. An array of complementary approaches will be needed to nudge individuals toward better behaviors and to unleash the power of the private sector. Critically, while we are still far from accurate pricing for ecosystem services, they are clearly valuable. Natural assets should be systematically incorporated into national accounts. The UN Statistical Commission adopted the System of Environmental and Economic Accounting as an international standard in February 2012, providing a broadly agreed methodology. Neglecting natural capital, like neglecting human and physical capital, is bad economics and bad for growth.Prong 3 – Meet up-front capital needs with innovative financing tools. Given the scarcity of fiscal resources, governments and multilateral financial institutions must work urgently to increase the role of the private sector in green investment. Private-public partnerships are crucial, as is increasing access to financing for small and medium enterprises.Ultimately, much of what is needed to green growth is good growth policy, which aims to get prices right and fix markets, address coordination failures and knowledge externalities, and assign property rights. But green growth policies are no panacea for structural shortcomings in an economy: environmental measures cannot offset macroeconomic instability, distorted labor markets, poorly regulated financial systems, or hostile business environments.Moreover, while greener growth can be made affordable, achieving a green economy overnight cannot. Rapid shifts would entail much slower growth at least in the short to medium run. Conversely, avoiding a brutal transition is a strong incentive to start acting now. Show Less -

South Korea Pledges $40 million to Promote Green Growth for AllSEOUL May 9, 2012 –The World Bank today released a report urging governments to think green when pursing growth policies, which can be inclusive,... Show More + efficient, affordable and above all necessary to sustain economic expansion in years ahead. Launched at the Global Green Growth Summit in Seoul, Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathway to Sustainable Development, lays out an analytical framework that factors atmospheric, land and marine system limitations into plans for economic growth needed to further reduce poverty. The report debunks the myth that a green growth approach is a luxury most countries cannot afford – pointing instead to political barriers, entrenched behaviors and a lack of appropriate financing instruments as the chief obstacles. “Truly remarkable gains have been made in health and social welfare since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, yet too often progress has resulted in environmental degradation and resource depletion,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development. “Decisions made today will commit countries to growth patterns that may or may not be sustainable in the future. Great care must be taken to ensure that cities and roads, factories and farms are designed and regulated in a way that raises standards of living while efficiently harnessing natural, human and financial capital.”The report challenges governments to change their approach to growth policies, better measuring not only what is being produced, but what is being used up and polluted in the process. It asserts that assigning value to farmland, minerals, rivers, oceans, forests and biodiversity, and awarding property rights, will offer governments, industry and individuals sufficient incentive to manage them in an efficient, inclusive and sustainable manner. The World Bank strongly supports incorporating natural capital into national accounts and will be seeking country commitments at the United Nations Rio+20 Summit in Brazil next month. The Government of Korea pledged $40 million to strengthen and expand the Bank Group's global green growth portfolio by tapping into and leveraging Korea's successful experience. “We are delighted to partner with the World Bank Group and to share Korea’s experiences and expertise since making green growth our national strategy in 2008,” said Jaewan Bahk, Minister of Strategy and Finance. “The transition to green growth paths is not easy. Sharing know how and capacity is imperative if developing countries are to leapfrog inefficient and outdated growth and production patterns.” At a high-level event held on the sidelines of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, other finance ministers expressed growing support for the concept of inclusive green growth.The new World Bank Inclusive Green Growth report emphasizes five main points:Greening growth is necessary, efficient and affordable – it is critical to achieving sustainable development.Political barriers, entrenched behaviors and norms, and a lack of financing instruments are the chief obstacles to greening growth. Green growth must focus on the policies and investments that need to be made within the next 5-10 years – to avoid getting locked into unsustainable paths, damaging policy reversals and costly public health consequences.Progress requires multi-disciplinary solutions, blending economics, political science, and social psychology – to tackle political economy constraints, overcome deeply entrenched behaviours and social norms and develop the needed financing tools.Green growth is neither monolithic nor static – strategies will vary across countries, reflecting local contexts, preferences and resource bases. All countries, rich and poor, have opportunities to green their growth without slowing it.Green growth is not inherently inclusive, but can be designed to be so. While better environmental performance will generally benefit the poorest and most vulnerable, green growth policies must be carefully designed to maximize benefits and minimize costs for them, particularly during the transition.“There is a frequent misconception that poor countries cannot stimulate growth without degrading the environment and burning the cheapest and dirtiest sources of energy: coal, biomass and at times oil and gas,” said Kandeh Yumkella, Director General, United Nations Industrial Development Organization. “This simply isn’t true. Developing countries won’t replicate growth patterns of previous centuries, nor should they try. They need to grow smarter, greener and quicker. The natural environment, minerals and raw materials are the principal sources of capital in poor countries, and therefore must be rigorously protected while being responsibly harnessed.” “This report makes a compelling case that boosting economic growth and improving social and environmental welfare are neither mutually exclusive nor cost-prohibitive,” Yumkella added. “Developing countries must overcome policy obstacles and institute investment incentives now as they make infrastructure and production decisions that will carry consequences for generations.” Show Less -

Joint action needed to link disaster risk management, climate adaptationWASHINGTON, April 27, 2012—On the heels of a sobering UN report on dramatic climate extremes expected to occur around the world,... Show More + officials from donor and developing countries, along with international organizations have reaffirmed their commitments to making disaster resilience a priority in development planning. The officials, meeting during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings, also recognized that linking disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, and integrating them into the development agenda, is critical to building resilience in communities and countries. Mahmoud Mohieldin, World Bank Managing Director, said, "We have too often witnessed how disasters can roll back years of development progress. On top of that, we now need to prepare for a changing world—rapid urbanization and a changing climate are reshaping and exacerbating disaster risks. But geography need not be destiny, and the future—however uncertain and unpredictable when we factor in the impact of climate change—need not be feared if correct preventive policies are taken today.” Convened by the European Union, the Government of Japan, and the World Bank/GFDRR (Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery), the meeting was informed by last month’s report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—Special Report on Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. The report documents that current extreme weather events are projected to become more common in the future, and a changing climate is the cause. According to Christopher Field, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group ll, “The risk profiles are changing—several kinds of climate and weather extremes are increasing and are projected to increase in the future. In the second half of the century, we are looking at a ten-fold increase in the frequency of severe heat events. The most extreme heat waves that we currently experience only once a decade will become annual events.” The report warns that extreme events will have greater impacts on sectors with closer links to climate, such as water, agriculture and food security, forestry, health, and tourism. Dr. Field pointed out that many places are already seeing increases in extremes in heavy precipitation and in the length and severity of droughts. The people most impacted are those most vulnerable in the developing world—in 2010, the Pakistan floods alone left six million people homeless. Floods are the most frequent of natural disasters. Unprecedented―and often unregulated and unplanned―urbanization in the developing world, a large part of which is in fertile floodplains and/or coastal regions, is a key cause of increased exposure to flooding. Globally, it is projected that 600 million people will occupy coastal floodplain land below flood level by 2100. The key message from the IPCC report is the need for climate change adaptation, disaster risk management, and sustainable development to be integrated in order to help build resilience. But the numbers tell us that we’re not there yet. The world is still spending more on humanitarian aid after a disaster than on prevention before it. According to Andris Piebalgs, Commissioner for Development, European Union, global disaster losses amounted to US$264 billion in 2011. That was twice the level of official development aid that year. The participants in the Resilience Dialogue talked about how they would meet that challenge―through coordination, bridging humanitarian and development efforts, integrated approaches, and by working together to turn the reaction versus prevention paradigm on its head.Naoko Ishii, Deputy Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Japan, also announced that the next high level meeting of the officials will be held during the October 2012 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. The meeting will be held in Sendai, a city in Tohoku prefecture that bore the brunt of the 2011 tsunami. The objective will be to develop a global consensus among the international community to advance the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation as a development priority.On Working Together and Next StepsArmida Alisjahbana Minister of National Development Planning, Indonesia“Indonesia faces more than 100 disasters a year. In 2004, the Tsunami cost about 45 percent of Aceh’s regional economy. We have tried since to prepare for disasters in a more systematic way—early warning systems in disaster-prone areas, more coordinated efforts, money in our budget to anticipate disasters, a five-year blueprint to prepare for disasters. The key to make coordination work, the key thing is to have a single institution dealing with these issues. We don’t have institutions duplicating work.”Valerie AmosUnited Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator"We have learned lessons from the Horn of Africa and we've heeded early warning signs―and have moved much more quickly to respond in the Sahel. We're bridging development and humanitarian efforts to build resilience and support governments in the region in their response to this."Helen ClarkAdministrator, United Nations Development Programme“Without a basic level of resilience, you can't hang on to the gains you've made when adversity and shocks come along. Dialogue about resilience has come light years. With everyone reflecting on the cost of major disasters, the message is very clear: Don’t wait for the next one—we know that at some time there will be another earthquake, another tsunami, a cyclone, a drought, so what can we do as development partners? Resilience must be at the very heart of our development activities. Active, effective, honest, fair and responsive and representative governance promotes resilience, in every country. As the recent financial crisis showed, not all developed countries have retained systemic resilience to economic shocks. Unless developed countries are prepared to see years of human development and progress wiped away when adversity strikes, their systemic resilience to shocks is critical as well.”Naoko IshiiDeputy Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Japan“The very timely IPCC Report makes clear that disaster risk management and climate change adaptation measures are essentially two sides of the same coin. These measures need to be incorporated across various sectors as a key component of development policy. In doing so, a multi-layered approach is necessary to avoid relying on just one measure. Maintaining infrastructure and cutting-edge technology is not sufficient in itself. In order to empower individuals to act when they face natural disasters, hard infrastructure needs to be complemented by disaster education, risk communication, evacuation training, and other measures. Japan has been a steadfast champion of the disaster risk management agenda. The Great East Japan Earthquake of last year has only made Japan reaffirm its increased commitment to help reduce disaster risk throughout the world.”Rachel KyteVice President, Sustainable Development, World Bank“Over the last three years, two-thirds of our country assistance strategies have started to build in disaster risk management. The aim is to get to 100 percent. We have to change the way we think about infrastructure, agriculture, transportation, water, energy, how communities become resilient, what kind of information we share. We have to help people make infrastructure decisions that will prove resilient far into the future. But we know too that we are in an “adaptation” institution. Climate change adaptation has to be integrated in all we do.Dario LunaHead of Unit, Insurance, Pensions and Social Security, Ministry of Finance, Mexico“We in Mexico give a lot of importance to disaster risk management because we are a country that is prone to disasters. As presidency of the G20, we wanted to put this topic on the agenda―emphasizing the reduction of both human and economic costs. One of the key aspects of our changing world is the increased exposure to natural disasters. We believe that this effort will help disaster risk management gain more prominence in G20 countries and with finance ministers.”Andrew MitchellSecretary of State for International Development, United Kingdom and Co-chair of the Political Champions Group for Resilience“I hope our Political Champions Group will be a good servant of the international efforts engaged in these issues. In addition, by 2015, DFID will imbed resilience in all of our work. We particularly want to harness the role of the private sector for insurance.”Mahmoud MohieldinManaging Director, World Bank“There is much we can do together to build resilience in communities and nations. We can—and should—build international consensus and country ownership to continue investing in measuring risk and informing decision making for increased resilience. We can—and should—complete work on a globally accepted metric to assess urban disaster risk that could be applied to cities around the world. Such a metric will let us analyze cities according to their level of risk, and define a baseline against which to measure progress towards building greater resilience; and we can—and should—continue the dialogue on how to better measure our progress towards building greater resilience.”Andris PiebalgsCommissioner for Development, European Union“The EU is deeply involved in putting its resilience commitments into practice on a number of fronts. We are coordinating, planning and programming among humanitarian and development actors to deliver common analyses and joint definition of priorities (as in the Horn of Africa and Sahel); we are developing new, more flexible EU financial instruments; we are increasing our focus on resilience and capacity-building at the central and community level; and we are allocating more to prevention preparedness and resilience in humanitarian aid and development budgets, while also advocating the inclusion of disaster risk reduction on government agendas.”Rajiv ShahAdministrator, United States Agency for International Development“The question we should ask ourselves is what is happening in the most vulnerable areas on the ground? It is clear we are not doing enough. We have to reverse the way things work now—we are still spending more on humanitarian aid than prevention. That has to reverse. Since 2002, the U.S. spent $11.2 billion on humanitarian aid in the Horn of Africa―chasing the problem after the fact. We want to reverse that, put it into prevention. We need to reverse the equation from reaction to prevention and make sure that whatever we do drives results.”About the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)Established in 2006, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is a partnership of 41 countries and eight international organizations committed to helping developing countries reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and adapt to climate change. The partnership’s mission is to mainstream disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in country development strategies by supporting a country-led and managed implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. Show Less -

Rapid urbanization and climate change are reshaping and exacerbating disaster risk. Together, they have added urgency to the task of building resilience in communities and countries around the world.Climate... Show More + extremes that we could hardly imagine and cope with every 20 years are going to happen every two years in this century. This is the message of a sobering report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about the dramatic climate extremes that are expected to increase around the world.Meeting on the margins of the World Bank/IMF spring meetings on April 20 to discuss the implications of the report for their work on building resilience, donors, developing countries and international organizations reaffirmed their commitment to making disaster resilience a priority in development planning. The group of leading officials also agreed that integrating disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into the development agenda is critical to building resilience in communities and countries."We have too often witnessed how disasters can roll back years of development progress," said World Bank Managing Director Mahmoud Mohieldin. "On top of that, we now need to prepare for a changing world—rapid urbanization and a changing climate are reshaping and exacerbating disaster risks.""But as we discussed today, geography need not be destiny, and the future—however uncertain and unpredictable when we factor in the impact of climate change—need not be feared if correct preventive policies are taken today.”Convened by the European Union, the Government of Japan, and the World Bank/GFDRR (Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery), the Resilience Dialogue was informed by last month’s IPCC report Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation.Christopher Field, co-chair of the IPCC Working Group ll, warned the group: “The risk profiles are changing—several kinds of climate and weather extremes are increasing and are projected to increase in the future. In the second half of the century, we are looking at a ten-fold increase in the frequency of severe heat events. The most extreme heat waves that we currently experience only once a decade will become annual events.”Field pointed out that we are, in many places, already seeing increases in extremes in heavy precipitation and in the length and severity of droughts. For many poor communities living in areas already exposed to even moderate climate events, such as floods, this is indeed bad news. The people most impacted are those most vulnerable in the developing world—in 2010, the Pakistan floods alone left six million people homeless.Floods are the most frequent of all natural disasters. A recent World Bank paper on cities and flooding estimates that flooding in 2010 affected 178 million people. Unprecedented―and often unregulated and unplanned―urbanization in the developing world, a large part of which is in fertile floodplains and/or coastal regions, is a key cause of increased exposure to flooding. In China, 100 million people have moved from inland to coastal areas in the last 20 years. Globally 600 million people will occupy coastal floodplain land below flood level by 2100.Indonesia knows too well the horrendous impact that disasters can have―the cost in lives and GDP. The 2004 tsunami took more than 200,000 lives. But Indonesia has learned from its disasters.“Indonesia faces more than 100 disasters a year,” said Armida Alisjahbana Minister of National Development Planning, Indonesia. “In 2004, the tsunami cost about 45 percent of Aceh's regional economy. We have tried since to prepare for disasters in a more systematic way—early warning systems in disaster-prone areas, more coordinated efforts, money in our budget to anticipate disasters, a five-year blueprint to prepare for disasters. The key to make coordination work, the key thing is to have a single institution dealing with these issues. We don’t have institutions duplicating work.”The key message from this IPCC report is the need for climate change adaptation, disaster risk management and sustainable development to be integrated into the same agenda in order to help build resilience. But the numbers tell us that we’re not there yet. The world is still spending more on humanitarian aid after a disaster than investing in prevention. According to Andris Piebalgs, Commissioner for Development, European Union, global disaster losses amounted to US$264 billion in 2011. That amount was twice the official development aid in 2011.The World Bank, as a development institution, has been focusing more and more on building resilience. It established disaster risk reduction as a practice group, staffed up, and invested US$6 billion in the last six years in disaster risk reduction to support countries to integrate resilience into their development strategies.“Over the last three years, two-thirds of our country assistance strategies have started to build in disaster risk management. The aim is to get to 100 percent," said Kyte. "We have to change the way we think about infrastructure, agriculture, transportation, water, energy, how communities become resilient, what kind of information we share. We have to help people make infrastructure decisions that will prove resilient far into the future. But we know, too, that we are in an 'adaptation' institution. Climate change adaptation has to be integrated in all we do.”Working Together and Next StepsGFDRR, as the disaster risk reduction (DRR) focal point in the World Bank, is leading assistance to the Government of Mexico to develop DRR as a priority topic for Mexico’s G20 presidency in 2012.Dario Luna, who leads the Insurance, Pensions and Social Security unit in Mexico's Ministry of Finance, is coordinating this initiative for the Mexican government.“We in Mexico give a lot of importance to disaster risk reduction because we are a country that is prone to disasters,” Luna said. “As presidency of the G20, we wanted to put this topic on the agenda―emphasizing the reduction of both human and economic cost. One of the key aspects of our changing world is the increased exposure to natural disasters. We believe that this effort will help DRR gain more prominence in G20 countries and with finance ministers.”A key challenge in the development of risk management strategies based on robust risk information, analysis, and modeling is the lack of systematic tools and methodologies to collect data, assess risk and vulnerability, and inform decision making. A joint Mexico and World Bank public policy publication will be produced on Improving the Assessment of Natural Disaster Risks to Strengthen Financial Resilience, and presented to the G20 summit on 18-19 June in Los Cabos.Naoko Ishii, deputy vice minister of finance for International Affairs in Japan, closed the Resilience Dialogue by announcing that the next high level meeting will be held during the October 2012 IMF-World Bank Annual meetings. The event will be in Sendai, a city in the Tohoku prefecture that bore the brunt of the tsunami last year, and its objective will be to develop a global consensus among the international community to advance the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation as a development priority.“The very timely IPCC Report makes clear that disaster risk management and climate change adaptation measures are essentially two sides of the same coin," Ishii said. "These measures need to be incorporated across various sectors as a key component of development policy."The participants in the Resilience Dialogue talked about how they would meet that challenge―through coordination, bridging humanitarian and development efforts, integrated approaches and by working together to turn the reaction versus prevention paradigm on its head. Show Less -

Mexico City meeting points to further, deeper knowledge-sharing, policy push Mexico City, January 11, 2012 - Governments looking to design and implement green growth policies and move towards... Show More + a green economy now have a new source of information and assistance. Four leading global organizations today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create the Green Growth Knowledge Platform, a cutting edge global initiative that will identify and address major knowledge gaps in green growth theory and practice. The agreement was signed by the Global Green Growth Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Bank. “This MoU marks the formal launch of essential international cooperation on testing, exploring, and refining policies and actions on green growth for practical implementation in both developed and developing countries,” said Richard Samans, Executive Director of the Global Green Growth Institute. The coming decade will offer major opportunities for synergy between environmental and economic sustainability. For example, developing countries can factor “green” into their new investments in infrastructure and can further develop agriculture and other natural resources to improve livelihoods, create jobs, and reduce poverty. “Governments seeking to re-ignite growth after the crisis,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, “should harness innovation, investment, and entrepreneurship to drive the shift to greener economies. We must intensify our efforts to move towards green growth to preserve natural capital and reduce pollution. It will be essential to avoid path dependency by breaking old habits of consumption and investing in new technology and infrastructure. The Green Growth Knowledge Platform will be key for facilitating collaboration among our four institutions, to provide governments with the best possible tools to achieve this goal.” The Green Growth Knowledge Platform will improve local, national, and global economic policy-making around the world by providing rigorous and relevant analysis of the various synergies and tradeoffs between the economy and the environment. It will complement other efforts by emphasizing policy instruments that yield local environmental co-benefits while stimulating growth, providing a compelling set of incentives for governments. Sylvie Lemmet, Director of UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, said, "The Platform offers new opportunities to push the envelope on how a green economy transition can generate jobs and income, while producing positive impacts on the environment and setting a new threshold for enhanced global cooperation towards accelerating and scaling up sustainable development." The MoU signing took place on the eve of the inaugural Green Growth Knowledge Platform conference. The conference, with more than 120 leading scholars and practitioners, has been organized in partnership with Mexico to:take stock of the current understanding of the economics of green growth;engage researchers and practitioners in an ongoing dialogue to increase understanding of how green growth approaches can be applied in the field;identify knowledge gaps and establish priorities for knowledge-building work and implementation; andlaunch follow-on efforts.“This conference is taking an important step in convening a community of experts and practitioners to develop a shared, evidence-based vision of the contributions greener growth can make to sustainable development,” said Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development at the World Bank. “By joining forces and sharing data, we can equip policy makers everywhere with better tools to manage the choices and trade-offs that greener and more inclusive growth may entail.” The MoU signing and conference are the first steps toward the Green Growth Knowledge Platform’s efforts to shape the global knowledge agenda for green growth. Moving forward, the Platform will organize new research programs around a handful of priority themes to be identified later this week, as well as cultivate a dynamic global community of green growth researchers and practitioners. Show Less -

WASHINGTON DC, December 12, 2011 - The World Bank is joining forces with the Blacksmith Institute, one of the world’s leading non-government organizations with expertise in cleaning up toxic pollution... Show More + left over from past industrial activities like mining and smelting. Through a $700,000 grant under the World Bank’s Development Grant Facility, Blacksmith will design the framework for a global partnership that will bring together local communities affected by “legacy pollution” with development partners, local governments, other NGOs, and the private sector. Once in place, the partnership is expected to bring a systematic and organized approach to dealing with legacy pollution globally. It will assist countries to build their capacity to assess contaminated sites, prioritize, develop and manage clean-up projects and will enable clear and effective transfer of remediation technologies. Over the past decade, Blacksmith has reduced health risks from exposures to lead, mercury, chromium and other toxic pollutants in some of the world’s most polluted places in countries including Indonesia, Nigeria, Senegal, Russia, and the Philippines. The partnership approach was triggered by concerns from governments and local communities at the lack of action to deal with toxic legacy pollution. Many of these sites are “orphaned” – they have no agency with clear responsibility for cleanup. In some cases, the original polluters are unknown or untraceable, are bankrupt or are now-defunct state entities. In other cases, a large number of operators contributed to the pollution, making liability for cleanup nearly impossible to enforce. Health impacts may include significant disability and even death. Lead exposure, for example, can cause neurological damage, reduced IQ, anemia, muscle and joint pain, and at high concentrations, seizures and death. “Addressing legacy pollution is vital to improving the environment, health and livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries around the world,” said Mary Barton-Dock, Director of the World Bank’s Environment Department. “Through our work with Blacksmith, the World Bank is catalyzing a new approach that supports countries in their efforts to deal with past pollution problems and restore their local environments.” President of Blacksmith Institute, Richard Fuller said: “High-income countries have largely solved their major toxic pollution problems. The partnership will give low- and middle-income countries the opportunity to do the same. The expertise and technology already exist. We just need to build the capacity of local partners to replicate and implement. In other words, this is a problem we can solve in our lifetime. This is a chance to improve the lives of millions.” With the grant agreement now signed, Blacksmith will proceed with the design phase for the partnership and bring partners on board. About the World Bank GroupThe World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. Its mission is to fight poverty and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors. About Blacksmith InstituteBlacksmith Institute is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to solving life-threatening pollution issues in the developing world. Based in New York, Blacksmith works cooperatively in partnerships that include governments, the international community, NGOs and local agencies to design and implement innovative, low-cost solutions to save lives. Since 1999, Blacksmith has completed over 50 cleanup projects in 21 countries. Show Less -